Top 13 Stupid Ideas That Made Millions

Crazy and stupid ideas are not always bad business.

Here are 13 stupid ideas that made millions.

Have a laugh or be inspired to make investments in your own wild business.

13. Billy the Big Mouth Bass

The idea of this prank is very stupid, yet it became an International fad in the 90’s. Billy the big Mouth Bass simply looks like a fish that has been mounted by a Taxidermist, but then it turns its head and starts talking and singing. The Billy Bass sold millions of them and made a very handsome profit. This is one stupid idea that made millions all because somebody followed through on it.

12. Flowbee

The Flowbee is a vacuum cleaner attachment that is designed to cut your hair. It is a White Trash way of cutting your hair, but Flowbee has sold well over 2,000,000 of their products.

11. Snuggie

Somewhere somebody was stoned and thought that they should add armholes into a blanket. The product was a huge success. The simplicity of this design drives a lot of people crazy because we think that “I should have thought of that”. Well many people did think about it, but no one followed through on it until the creator of the Snuggie took it national and began selling the, on Infomercials.

10. Pet Rock

The idea is literally stupid. You take a rock, put it into a carry box, and then sell it as a pet. For some reason our Country ate it up and the Pet Rock became a pop culture icon.

9. Solar Powered Flashlight

People use to joke about using their solar powered flashlight in the same way that people would comment that they have ocean front property for sale in Arizona. How the hell would a solar powered flashlight work anyways right? I mean you have to have the sun in order for it to work and you obviously do not need a flashlight when the sun is out. The answer is obvious to us today, but back in the day people thought this was a stupid idea. Somebody developed a way for a flashlight to be charged using solar energy that would be stored up until you needed to use it when it was dark out and the sun was long gone. This was a stupid idea that proved to be not so stupid and extremely profitable.

8. Spray Paint for Bald Men’s Heads

You have a receding hairline and don’t want people to know so what do you do? That’s right; you pull out a can of paint that is designed to be sprayed onto the bald parts of your scalp to hide the fact that you are bald. This is a seriously stupid idea, however with proper marketing this product went on to make millions of dollars. Even though this was a very successful product financially, it is still extremely stupid.

7. Bottled Water

Imagine you go back in time 50 years ago and tell the people that you will sell them water in a bottle. They would laugh and ridicule you. Although bottled water is extremely commonplace today, there was a time in our history where bottled water was considered a very stupid idea because people thought that no one would ever buy it. Buying water was a lot like selling Ice to an Eskimo, it obviously will not work.

Today the bottled water industry is frickin’ huge. Although bottled water is now mainstream, people are once again beginning to view bottled water in a negative light because of the environmental impact that the empty plastic bottles have on our planet.

6. Bobbleheads

Although the height of the Bobblehead phase may be over, they continue to sell extremely well. The best selling and most popular Bobbleheads are those of sports related stars. A Bobblehead is basically a G.I. Joe style toy figure with an oversized head that bounces around when you touch it. A very stupid idea, but the Bobblehead business has been extremely successful. Every decade or so the Bobblehead popularity begins to rise in popularity again.

5. Worn and Ripped Clothing

Hats and jeans become extremely comfortable once you have wore them for a few years and the fabric begins to rip, soften-up and the color fades. It use to be that you had to wear a pair of jeans or a hat for a long time before it became “broke-in”, but then they began selling clothing that was already ripped and broken-in. Initially many people thought it was very stupid, yet the sales trend of pre-ripped clothing continues to rise. Distressed clothing is very popular.

4. Antenna Balls

Initially these were considered cute, but the lasting effect that antenna balls have had on our society has been seriously crazy. Every time the fad seems to die down, Jack in the Box will release a new antenna ball and once again you will see them on all types of cars. This is now a niche market as the overall fad of them has died out and gone the way of the California Raisins, however you will still see this stupid business product. This is definitely a stupid business idea to base your market on; however antenna balls have proven to be a great money maker and a unique way for companies to get their customers to voluntarily advertise the company on their own personal vehicle.

3. Million Dollar Homepage

A college student wanted to raise some money for his college costs, so he creates the Million Dollar Homepage. The Million Dollar Homepage use a 1,000x1,000 Pixels graphic. Each individual pixel was to be sold for $1.00 each, with a minimum of 100 pixels purchased. Once you purchased some pixels you could have your ad placed within your pixels on the page. Although this may seem like a stupid idea, he went on to sell every single pixel on the page. He auctioned off the final pixels on EBay and earned over $1,000,000 off of his simple webpage.

2. Sweatin’ to the Oldies

Richard Simmons created the Sweating to the Oldies VHS tapes. You could exercise to 60’s music. While the general premise is OK, it seems like that would be an extremely small niche market. This proved to be untrue, and the Sweating to the Oldies exercise videos from Richard Simmons became a huge seller. The Sweating to the Oldies bred 6 different compilations. Although Richard Simmons has had many different exercise videos, none of them have the name recognition of the Sweating to the Oldies series.

1. Chia Pet

We all know what Chia Pets are! There is no need to describe them, however they seem like they would be a stupid business idea. Chia Pets have proven to be much more than a fad with a very long lasting business that has been very successful. My Favorite Chia Pet is the Homer Simpson Chia Pet and the Barack Obama Chia Pet. Yes this was the stupidest business idea that went on to make millions of dollars in profits.

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Lynsuz
Wow, I remember all of these and I think I owned over half of them too. Flowbee never did well on me or my family, but was great for grooming our dogs.

Apr 1, 2012 3:42pm

askformore
Great! But I would really like to know if you had 'Billy the Big Mouth Bass'? And IF you had, then what did the dogs do when Billy talked to them?

Apr 2, 2012 9:32am

Lynsuz
I didn't have Billy. Can imagine what they would do, because a deer head in our den made them bark a lot. Had to get rid of the deer much to my hubby's dismay.

Apr 1, 2012 7:05pm

Etcetera
Fabulous! I really enjoyed this article, however I was excited by the idea of the Flowbee hair cutting vacuum as I find going to the hair dresser a waste of time....or perhaps I am just white trash.

Apr 2, 2012 4:26am

askformore
I agree that going to the hair dresser is a waste of time ... and money.

Apr 2, 2012 12:59pm

aidenofthetower
Definitely had a laugh at some of them including Billy. But the million dollar homepage is what really excited me. It would certainly rock to bring in a million dollars with an idea like that. :-P

Apr 2, 2012 1:17pm

askformore
Yes, and it is so simple that I kick myself for not having made a "million dollar homepage" before someone else did.

Apr 7, 2012 7:36am

mommymommymommy
I personally like Richard Simmons' workouts. They have some great music to exercise to! Yes, it is hard to believe what makes money.

Apr 7, 2012 7:42am

askformore
Yes, 'Sweating to the Oldies' are great workouts, and great music.

Apr 18, 2012 3:46am

toebunkers
We don't have Chia Pet's in the U.K. yet and I've not heard of them before. Your article title is apt because I'm amazed any of these made any money!

Ascentive
Bottled water really freaks me out. Not only because the waste of all these plastic bottles. A recent study also showed that there are no label requirements to proof how good the water is.
I stay away from bottled water since then and stick with my filtered tab water.

~Anja~

Apr 20, 2012 2:28am

askformore
Yes, bottled water is stupid, but those who sell it make fortunes.

Apr 18, 2012 8:44pm

aguy
I remember every one of these. I always wondered what it was like in the first meeting where someone was proposing to sell bottled water. I have a lot of (some very funny) mental images of what that was like.

I had a friend who figured out how to change the audio in the fish. He would make them say and sing all sorts of crazy things.

jvlegendre
Wow, people could buy alot of stupidness, yes! My least favourite is of course the Sweatin' to the Oldies, daaaaaammmmm talk about short shorts, have some pride guy.

My favourite is the Million Dollar homepage, its not something you would have easily thought of doing and I guess cause I am kinda techy, I am biaseed to the concept. The rest of the stuff are just pure marketing and sales ploys to me. lol

LilBlackDress
I remember looking at a pet rock and asking the sales clerk what it did. I truly thought it was supposed to do something. The idea that someone would actually pay money for something that did nothing never occurred to me.

Apr 23, 2012 3:53am

askformore
Yet a pet rock is stupid. ... On the other hand, how about diamonds! What do they do? :D

Apr 21, 2012 5:54pm

Prosperity
I rememember the Million Dollar Home Page, it's quite a clever idea. He made millions so I guess he did something right :)

jjhansen
Great article and funny vids too. As a man losing his hair, I can understand how ideas that solve problems can be big earners. Maybe I'll place an order for a can of hair spray paint!!

May 3, 2012 6:40am

askformore
Thank you for your comment! Good luck with your hair venture.

Jun 23, 2012 9:20am

Marlando
Please add me to your list of fans--the above article is a keeper and gave me both a touch of laughter and depression--I mean, how dumb anddumber are we? Anyway great job!

Jun 27, 2012 9:27am

askformore
You are now on my list of fans, thank you for the trust, and Thank you for your comment!

Oct 18, 2012 10:23pm

Januarius
My wife considered "My idea" of scribbling ideas on paper for InfoBarrel to be a stupid idea.By then I was nursing the trauma of a road accident.But now she feels and I too feel the stupid idea is worthy the effort.People read my articles.

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